news/editorial

16 May 2021 News/Editorial

Those hoping that May 2021 would be like May 2020, in salmon fishing terms, increasingly seem likely to be disappointed. So far, the numbers just are not here. In 2020, only the few English beats in the lower river, below Carham, could fish at all in May, and even then only from the 14th; despite that, getting on for 400 salmon were caught. Here we are on the 16th May, with the whole river operating for the last 2 weeks, yet nowhere near that 400 figure has been caught.

In many ways, this May is like those before 2020, so that nobody should be surprised. Last year was the odd one out, if a very welcome one.

As for the weather next week, more of the same is the prognosis, cool, showery and the occasional longer spells of rain, no sign of summer. A succession of low pressures are tracking across the Atlantic and stalling over the UK as they run into a blocking high over Eastern Europe. None of the forecasters seem confident that this Russsian high will move anytime soon, condemning us Brits to this unsatisfactory status quo.

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My old friend the Eurasian Beaver is in the news again. Surprise, surprise. There is a challenge going on to limit the Government’s issuing of licences to control beavers. “Trees For Life” is effectively taking the Government (NatureScot) to court, and the NFU Scotland and Scottish Land & Estates are joining with NatureScot to contest the Judicial Review.

These pages have written more than most about the downside of beavers over the years. That we are going to get them on the Tweed is a given; it might take another 3, 5 or 10 years, but arrive they most certainly will. They will cut down trees and block spawning tributaries and generally degrade drainage systems and flood banks; that is what they do. What Trees For Life is trying to do is to chip away at the only ultimate sanction, if all other methods fail. You can try removal/relocation of the offending animals; you can knock down their dams if they are blocking spawning tributaries (the RTC under S31 of the Tweed Order has this power); you can try protecting your valuable trees, and you can do whatever else. At the end of the day, most would argue that you need to be able to control numbers in sensitive areas and stop the damage being done.

Not only that, but if you think the current problems on Tayside and elsewhere now are bad, you just wait until the beaver numbers swell, as they most surely will. Of course, rivers like the Tweed can live with beavers, but only if the measures are in place, and remain in place, to protect the river banks, to protect bankside vegetation and necessary shade, and to remove the dams that will block access to migratory fish.

If Trees For Life win their case, and as beaver numbers, together with their adverse impacts, grow, some say it would be the thin end of the wedge, and will inevitably lead to even greater reduction in controls, over time. If you wish to contribute to either the “NFU Scotland”’s or “SLE”’s costs in supporting the case against Trees For Life, then you can do so by visiting their websites.

Am I the only one finding the name “Trees For Life” somewhat ironic? Schoolboy humour, I suppose, but if there is one thing a tree wanting a long life does not need is a beaver chewing its nether regions until it falls down.

Funny old game.

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After 15 consecutive weeks of this in 2021, you will be relieved that there will be nothing posted here next week. Thank you for putting up with it all so far.